CapMan Growth invests in Avidly Plc

November 19, 2018

Not for release, publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa or Japan or any other jurisdiction in which the distribution or release would be unlawful.

EUR 2,6 million of new capital to boost globalization and CapMan Growth Equity Fund as the largest shareholder.

Share Issue

Avidly Plc’s (the “Company”) board of directors has today, based on the authorizations granted to it by the extraordinary general meeting on 31 August 2018, resolved on a directed share issue in which it offered 400,000 shares of the Company against payment to CapMan Growth Equity Fund 2017 Ky (the “CapMan Growth”) and 16,000 to other investors.

In the share issue, in total 416,000 new shares of the Company were issued for a subscription price of EUR 6.25 per share amounting the aggregate of the share issue to be 2,600,000 euros. The subscription price is based on an agreement between the Company and the subscribers and includes a premium of 27.4 percent compared to the volume-weighted average price of the Company’s shares between 17 October 2018 and 16 November 2018 on Nasdaq First North marketplace operated by Nasdaq Helsinki. The subscription price shall be credited in its entirety to the Company’s reserve for invested unrestricted equity.

The share issue was executed by deviating from the pre-emptive subscription right of the shareholders. The ground for the directed share issue is strengthening the capital structure of the Company by acquiring additional equity to be used particularly in order to finance the growth of the Company’s Inbound business based on HubSpot-technology through transactions. Therefore, the Company has a weighty financial reason for deviating from the pre-emptive subscription right of the shareholders.

The Company shall separately convene an extraordinary general meeting of the Company to decide on supplementing the Company’s board of directors and to elect Juha Mikkola as a new member of the board of directors.

Chairman of the board of directors, Jari Tuovinen:

“During 2018 we have assessed various growth strategies and as one of the most essential of them arose growing the Inbound business based on HubSpot-technology built around creative planning. This market grows quickly and its international consolidation will be Avidly’s significant growth factor in the future. Our thinking aligned with CapMan Growth, one of the leading growth investors in the Nordics. CapMan Growth becoming our first institutional investor will speed up the growth significantly.”

Managing partner of CapMan Growth, Mr. Juha Mikkola:

”For a long time, we have been researching the HubSpot-ecosystem and seen that Avidly, as the largest HubSpot solution provider, has an excellent opportunity to grow and become a significant size international company. In our opinion, Avidly has been an undervalued company in relation to its peer group and its growth and profitability potential. A few months ago we exited to a somewhat similar company in which we managed to almost quintuple the company’s turnover in under four years. We will be an active owner through our work on the board of directors and will do everything in our power for the company to succeed. I am also pleased that Mr. Michael “Monty” Widenius, the founder of MySQL, MariaDB and OpenOcean Capital became our shareholder in this connection.”

Due to the share issue and after the registration of shares with the Finnish Trade Register, the Company’s number of shares shall rise from 1,842,772 shares to 2,258,772 shares. New shares issued shall be registered with the Finnish Trade Register approximately by 31 December 2018. When the shares issued in the share issue have been registered with the Finnish Trade Register, the shares shall carry the same rights as the other shares of the Company.

The shares offered for subscription in the share issue are equivalent to 18.4 per cent of all of the Company’s shares after the share issue.

An application for the new shares to be admitted to trading on the Nasdaq First North marketplace operated by Nasdaq Helsinki shall be separately submitted approximately by 31 December 2018.

Company’s chairman of the board of directors, Jari Tuovinen:

“If the extraordinary general meeting decides in accordance with the made proposal, I am thrilled to welcome Juha Mikkola to the board of directors of Avidly and to secure the next phase of growth as Juha has been doing in tens of companies, lately in Idean and Fluido.”

The company is currently preparing a strategy update and new mid-term financial goals and strives to publish them in February 2019.

Planned secondary listing of shares

The Company has earlier informed about planning a secondary listing to the First North marketplace operated by Nasdaq Stockholm and about executing a related share issue. Due to now-executed share issue, the Company postpones possibly seeking for a secondary listing of shares and related share issue for the year 2019. Decisions on a possible secondary listing and related share issue shall be separately concluded later.

Avidly (former Zeeland Family) is Finland’s leading marketing service provider and a leading marketing automation company in the Nordics, listed on the Nasdaq First North marketplace in Helsinki. We create an atmosphere for growth to take our customers forward. We are a team of more than 250 navigators and explorers, makers and shakers in 15 locations in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.www.avidlyagency.com